Always Remember
by LiveLaughLove013
Summary: This story goes with my one-shot, Remember I Love You. That story focus' on how the interviews would have went if Katniss had been dating Gale before the games secretly, and how she tells the Capitol about it in her interview after Peeta professes his love for her. This story shows how different Katniss' games would be if her and Peeta weren't the star-crossed lovers. Galeniss
1. Chapter 1:Reaping

**A/N: This story goes with my one-shot, Remember I Love You. That story focus' on how the interviews would have went if Katniss had been dating Gale before the games secretly, and how she tells the Capitol about it in her interview after Peeta professes his love for her**

**This story shows how different Katniss' games would be if her and Peeta weren't the star-crossed lovers. It starts at the reaping.**

**I don't own The Hunger Games Trilogy.**

Chapter 1

"Primrose Everdeen!" Effie Trinket calls the name of our newest tribute in her horrid Capitol accent. Everyone murmurs quietly, as they always do when a 12 year old is chosen. They think it's unfair, because they are certain to die. Prim is certain to die. My little sister is going to die unless I do the one thing in my power to stop it.

"I volunteer!" My call rips through the town square and everyone turns to look at me. District 12 never has volunteers.

"No!"Prim screams as I make my way towards the stage. She wraps her skinny around me, refusing to let me go. "Katniss, you can't go!"

"Let go Prim." I whisper sternly.

"No, Katniss!" I feel Prim's arms loosen around me, replaced by Gale's arms engulfing me in a brief hug. "Up you go Catnip." He whispers and helps me onto the stage before taking Prim, still screaming, to my mother and returning to the 18 year olds section.

"What's your name, dear?" Effie asks, holding the microphone up to my face.

"Katniss Everdeen."

"I bet my buttons Primrose was your sister, wasn't she?"

I nod mutely.

"Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we? Let's give a round of applause to our newest tribute!"

To the credit of District 12, no one claps. Perhaps it's because they knew my father. Or have traded with Gale and I. Or have encountered Prim, who everyone loves. Instead, they stand in silence.

First is Gale. He slowly raises the three middle fingers on his left hand to his lips and extends them to me. Next is Prim. Madge, the mayor's daughter. Gale's mother, Hazelle. His brother, Rory. My mother. Greasy Sae. The entire district. The gesture is an old and rarely used gesture, sometimes seen at funerals. It means thanks, admiration. It means goodbye to someone you love.

Only Gale didn't mean it like that. Everyone else did, but when Gale started it, he was sending me a different message. _I love you_.

I am in danger of crying now but I try not to. When the recaps of the reapings are televised tonight, everyone will make note of my tears. I'll be marked a weakling, an easy target. I don't want that.

"Well, uh…" Effie is clearly thrown off by the refusal to applaud and the salute. "It's time to choose the boy tribute!" She walks over to the boy's reaping bowl and begins digging through.

_. Please not Gale._

Effie zooms back over to the podium to read the boy's name.

"Peeta Mellark!"

_It's not Gale._ That's my first thought after the name is called. Then I realize who it is that will be going into the Hunger Games with me.

Peeta Mellark.

I try to convince myself that it doesn't matter, that he isn't even my friend. We've only interacted once. But he saved my life that once.

_It was during the worst time. My father had died three months ago. My mother was gone, sunken into a depression that we couldn't get her out of. At the age of 11, I became the head of the family. I had no other choice. I bought our food at the market and cooked it the best I could. But the money ran out and we were slowly starving to death. I kept telling myself if we could just hold out until May 8__th__, I could sign up for tesserae to keep us alive. But it was to far away. We would be dead by then._

_On the day of my encounter with Peeta Mellark, it was pouring down rain. I had been in town, trying to sell some old baby clothes. Nobody wanted them. I had been to the Hob before, but was too afraid to go without my father._

_I couldn't go home. At home were my dead eyed mother and my hollow checked cracked lipped little sister. I couldn't go back, my hands empty of any hope._

_I found myself stumbling along the lane behind some of the shops. All forms of stealing are punishable by death in district 12. But the trash bins are fair game. Perhaps there would be something only my family was desperate enough to eat._

_When I passed the bakers, I was overwhelmed by the scent of fresh bread coming out the open door. I lifted the lid of the trash bin and found it heartlessly bare._

_Suddenly the baker's wife was there screaming at me telling me to go away or she'd call the peacekeepers and how tired she was of having us seam brats paw through her trash and how I wasn't going to get anything from her and how she didn't care how starving I was. As I carefully replaced the lid and backed away, I saw him. A blond haired boy peering out from behind his mother. He was my age; I had seen him at school but never talked to him. I didn't know his name back then because he always stuck with the town kids. Slowly, him and his mother turned around and walked inside. I leaned against their pig pen and sighed. I was sick and weak and tired._

_There was a clatter in the bakery, the baker's wife's screaming, and the sound of a blow. The boy opened the door and made his way toward the pigs._

"_Feed it to the pigs, you stupid creature!" his mother was shouting. "Why not? No one decent will buy burned bread!" _

_He began to tear chunks of bread off and throw them into the trough. His mother disappeared inside the bakery to help a customer. Peeta looked back at the bakery once, as if to make sure his mother was gone before tossing the loaves of bread at my feet and heading inside the bakery._

_The next day it was like spring had come overnight. I saw the boy at school. His cheek had swelled and his eye had blackened. When I picked Prim up that afternoon, I caught him staring at me across the courtyard. Our eyes met for a moment and then I dropped my gaze, embarrassed. And then I saw it. The first dandelion of the spring. I remembered the hours I had spent gathering them in the woods with my father and I knew how we were going to survive._

Effie brings me back from my memories by asking for volunteers. My eyes search out Gale in the crowd. They find him just as he is opening his mouth. I know what he is going to say, and he can't say it. Only one person can win, after all.

_Don't._ I beg him with my eyes. _Please, Gale. I don't want you to die. You need to stay here and care for our families._

_What about you? _He asks. _I love you Catnip. I don't want you to die._

_I can care for myself Gale._

Effie decides that no one is going to volunteer and motions for the mayor to read the Treaty of Treason, as he does every year at this point. Instead of listening, my eyes turn to Gale again.

_Thank you. I don't want you in this too._

_I would rather be up there right now with you Catnip. I might never see you again now._

_Gale. I will be fine._

_You're right. I love you Catnip._

_I love you too Gale._

_You better win Catnip. I would die without you._

_I will._

"Tributes shake hands." Effie instructs and we do. Peeta looks me in the eye and gives me what I think is supposed to be a reassuring squeeze. Maybe it's a nervous spasm.

We turn back and face the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays.

**I know this chapter is a lot like the book. The storyline is more or less the same as the original until the interviews. However, I am going to condense those parts into probably only two or three chapter. Once the games start it will be a lot different.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2:Goodbye

Always Remember Chapter 2

As the anthem ends, Peeta and I are led into the Justice Building by a group of peacekeepers. Once inside, I am conducted to a room and left alone. The room is expensively decorated, with thick carpets and velvet furniture. I sit on the couch and absentmindedly stroke the velvet as I try to prepare for the next hour. The time for the tributes to say goodbye to their family, friends, and loved ones.

Prim and my mother are first. Prim comes running in and sits on my lap, sobbing hysterically. "I'm so sorry Katniss! You shouldn't have volunteered!"

"Shhhh. It's okay Prim." I whisper. "I had to volunteer. I couldn't let you go into the games."

When Prim calms down, I go over what they must do. Prim must stay in school. She must not take any tesserae. They can get buy, if they are careful, by selling Prim's goat milk and cheese and by the small apocathary business my mother now runs from our home. "Gale will bring you game, and probably won't ask for any compensation for it, but you should thank him with some kind of trade, like milk, or medicine. If you need any herbs, he will get them for you." About a year ago Gale and I made a pact. If one of us was reaped for the Hunger Games, the other would do two things. One, not volunteer. Gale doesn't like this part, but someone needs to take care of our families. Two, they would take care of both families for free, until the other returns.

After my instructions, I turn to my mother and grip her shoulders. "Listen to me. Are you listening to me?"

"Y-Yes." She stutters.

"You have to be here for Prim. You can't black out on her like you did last time. There's no me now to keep you two alive. No matter what happens to me, you have to fight through it. You have to take care of Prim."

"I was ill last time." Mother argues. "If I had the medicine I had now, it wouldn't have happened."

"Then take the medicine. And take care of Prim."

"What about you, Katniss?"Prim asks. "You're strong, and fast. Maybe you can win."

I can't win. She has to know that. There are kids that have trained their entire life for this. Boys two or three times my size. Girls who know a dozen ways to kill you with a knife.

"I'll try." I say.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

And then the peacekeepers are back for Prim and my mother. We are embracing and all I can say is I love you over and over. Then the peacekeepers take them away and I am left alone in the room.

My next visitor is unexpected. Madge, the mayor's daughter.

"Katniss." She says as she enters the room and I sense an urgency she doesn't usually have. "They allow you to take one thing into the arena with you to remind you of your district. Will you take this?"

She places a golden pin in my hand. "Please?"

"Maybe." I decide. I still want to see if I have anything else, from my family or Gale.

"Okay." Madge says. She gives me a quick hug and then vanishes as quickly as she appeared.

My next visitor is my last. Gale.

The second the door opens I am in his arms, knowing he's the only person it could be. His lips descend on mine and I respond instantly. My lips move against his in a desperate dance as I frantically try to get enough. Gale's hands graze my body, causing the spots where he touches to burst into flame. One of my hands rests on his chest while the other tangles itself in his hair.

When we finally break for air, Gale's arms around my waist, one of my hands in his hair and the other on his heart, we are both breathing heavily. "Listen Catnip." Gale instructs. "Getting a knife should be easy, but you have to get a bow."

"They don't always have bows Gale." I protest, remembering the year there were only spiked maces for the tributes to bludgeon each other to death with.

"Then make one." Gale replies. "A weak bow is better than no bow."

"What if there's no wood?"

"There will be. There's no fun in watching tributes freeze to death." He shoots back. He's right. One year we spent the Hunger Games watching tributes freeze to death because they had no wood for fires of anything. Very boring for the Capitol. Since then, there's usually been wood.

"You're right." I agree. "Gale, promise me you'll take care of Prim."

"I promise. She'll be fine until you get back."

"What if I don't come back?"

"You will Catnip. You have to."

"There's 24 of us, Gale. Only one comes out."

"You're coming back Catnip. You can win this. You know how to survive, you can hunt."

"Not people!" I argue.

"How different can it be really?" Gale asks ruefully. The sad part is if I can forget their human, it won't be any different at all.

"Please come back Katniss." He whispers.

"I will."

My lips meet his and I am overwhelmed by the flame of our desire and love. I want this inferno to take me over, I welcome it. His tongue grazes my bottom lip and I open my mouth to deepen the kiss. Our tongues dance, a wild tango that takes me over. I forget where I am, why I am here, everything. I forget everything except Gale and how he is making me feel. Until I feel his arms being yanked from around my waste, my hands being tore from his hair. I look up to find him being dragging him out of the room by peacekeepers.

"Gale!" I scream.

"Catnip!" he yells. "Remember, I love you! Please, come back to me!"

And I know, because of Gale, I must. I will come back. I will win the Hunger Games.


	3. Author's Note

**Hey, I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated. I've been super busy, and probably won't be able to update for a while still.**

**That said, I also have a major case of writer's block. I've lost my inspiration for these stories, and I am, unfortunately, putting them on hiatus.**

**If I have more inspiration and some time, I will try to update these. Until then, I'll probably just stick to one-shots.**

**~SuperMarioGirl13**


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